Dutch king apologizes for role in slavery on abolition anniversary
AMSTERDAM — Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized Saturday for his country’s role in slavery and asked for forgiveness in a historic speech greeted by cheers and whoops at an event to commemorate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
The king’s speech followed Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology last year for the country’s role in the slave trade and slavery. It is part of a wider reckoning with Colonial histories in the West that has been spurred in recent years by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Willem-Alexander referred back to that apology as he told a crowd of invited guests and onlookers: “Today I stand before you. Today, as your king and as a member of the government, I make this apology myself. And I feel the weight of the words in my heart and my soul.”
The king said he has commissioned a study into the exact role of the royal House of Orange-Nassau in slavery in the Netherlands.
“But today, on this day of remembrance, I ask forgiveness for the clear failure to act in the face of this crime against humanity,” he added.
Willem-Alexander’s voice appeared to break with emotion as he completed his speech before laying a wreath at the country’s national slavery monument in an Amsterdam park.
Some people want action to back up the words.
“Honestly, I feel good, but I am still looking forward to something more than just apologies. Reparations, for example,” said 28-years-old Doelja Refos.
Former lawmaker John Leerdam told Dutch broadcaster NOS, “It’s a historic moment and we have to realize that,” he said.
Slavery was abolished in Suriname and the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean on July 1, 1863, but most of the enslaved laborers were forced to continue working on plantations for a further 10 years. Saturday’s commemoration and speech mark the start of a year of events to mark the 150th anniversary of July 1, 1873.
Research published last month showed that the king’s ancestors earned the modernday equivalent of $595 million from slavery.
When Rutte apologized in December, he stopped short of offering compensation to descendants of enslaved people. Instead, the government is establishing a $217 million fund for initiatives that tackle the legacy of slavery in the Netherlands and its former colonies and to improve education about the issue.
That isn’t enough for some. Two groups, Black Manifesto and The Black Archives, organized a protest march before the king’s speech Saturday under the banner “No healing without reparations.”
“A lot of people including myself, my group, The Black Archives, and The Black Manifesto say that [an] apology is not enough,” said Black Archives director Mitchell Esajas.
The Netherlands’ often brutal Colonial history has come under renewed and critical scrutiny in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in the US city of Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
A groundbreaking 2021 exhibition at the national museum of art and history took an unflinching look at slavery in Dutch colonies. In the same year, a report described the Dutch involvement in slavery as a crime against humanity and linked it to what the report described as ongoing institutional racism in the Netherlands.